New Dungeons & Dragons Video Game Announced

Dungeons & Dragons and Tuque Games has announced Dark Alliance, a new video game for PC and consoles that will be released in 2020. The new third-person action RPG was announced at The Game Awards with a trailer showing Drizzt Do'Urden and his companions Catti-Brie, Bruenor, and Wulfgar hack and slash their way through gnolls and other monsters across an icy landscape. According to Wizards of the Coast, Dark Alliance is a spiritual successor to the original Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance games and is set in Icewind Dale of the Forgotten Realms.

"Dark Alliance stands on its own," Kevin Neibert, Lead Game Designer at Tuque Games told ComicBook.com. "It’s a spiritual successor to the original games, and if you’re a fan of Drizzt and the companions or R.A. Salvatore’s novels, you will probably notice some familiar touches from the lore and history of Drizzt, but you don’t need any specific knowledge to pick up the game for the first time." Neibert also told ComicBook.com that Dark Alliance is set in the Forgotten Realm's past within Salvatore's best-selling book series, specifically taking place after the events of The Crystal Shard. However, Dark Alliance is intended as a stand-alone story and has its own original storyline. Although Dark Alliance is a brand new story, it does feature some familiar faces and locations in addition to the main playable characters. Neibert teased that longtime D&D fans will recognize a bunch of characters in the games, but that they weren't ready to reveal any more specifics.

The original Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance games utilized aspects of D&D's Third Edition ruleset. When asked about how much Fifth Edition rules were incorporated into the new Dark Alliance, Neibert responded that "this game has deeper combat and is heavily influenced by the 5e rule set. We like to say that this game starts the moment your DM tells you to 'roll for initiative'."

Dark Alliance represents the latest push for Dungeons & Dragons' return to the video game realm. Not only have we seen re-releases of classic games like Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment in recent months, Dungeons & Dragons and Larian Studios also announced that Baldur's Gate III was in development.

Expect to see Dark Alliance come out in Fall 2020.

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